Leg of Fallow Deer Marinated and Filled with Cranberry Sauce and Chestnut Spaetzle

Preparation of the club the day before:

1. Wash the club in cold water and dry it. Separate the lower leg from the femur. Remove silver skins and any other “protrusions”. Finally, feel the bone on the inside / underside of the leg and cut into the meat so deep that it can be seen. Then cut it with small cuts along and around it, exposing it, removing it and adding it to the paring that has already been created (meat sections see above). The severed leg weighed without bones and paring at the end of 1000 g.
2. Now whisk together red wine and yoghurt in a not too large saucepan, lightly pepper and salt and add the spices. Pepper and salt the meat of the released leg well all around and place in the marinade. It should be covered as much as possible. If not, then it has to be turned every now and then during marinating (!). The leg must now lie in the marinade in a cool environment for at least 24 hours. Of course, longer would be more ideal, but everyone can decide for themselves. For me it was 30 hours.

Preparation sauce:

1. Peel the celery and carrots, cut into large pieces. Thoroughly wash and clean the leek, cut into large pieces. Halve the onion (it is fried with the skin on). In a larger saucepan, sear the paring and bones in 30 g of lard. When they have got a good color, first add the vegetables and the onion halves and roast them briefly and then the tomato paste. When it starts to set on the bottom of the pot, deglaze everything first with red wine and then with the stock. Stir well, add a little pepper and salt, turn the heat down halfway and let it simmer for about 45 minutes with the saucepan open. When the liquid has reduced, pour in the water and let it simmer gently for another 1 hour with the lid on. Then turn off the stove and let everything sit with the pot closed until the next day.

Filling on the day of preparation:

1. Since pre-cooked chestnuts are required for the filling and the spaetzle, the two portions for the filling and spaetzle (200 g in total) can be chopped at once. For the filling, the chestnuts can be a little coarser, similar to chopped almonds. For the spaetzle, they have to be ground further after chopping.
2. For the filling, remove 75 g from the chopped chestnuts and knead with all other ingredients. Hold ready.

Spaetzle dough on the day of preparation:

1. This special dough with chestnut flour should have enough time to pull through. The shortest rest time would be 30 minutes. It is advisable, however, to give him 2 – 3 hours of rest, then the spaetzle will later be nice and “fluffy”. If the dough is left to rest for a longer period of time, it should be beaten with a perforated trowel every now and then.
2. Now put 125 g of the chopped chestnuts mentioned above in a taller, narrow container and work them with the hand blender until they have a flour-like consistency. Then put this “flour” together with all the remaining ingredients in a bowl, first stir briefly with the paddle of the hand mixer and then whisk vigorously with a perforated ladle. Then – until the spaetzle is cooked – every now and then (see point 6).

Completion of meat, sauce, spaetzle:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 ° O / bottom heat. Slide in the drip pan on the lowest rail and the wire rack on top.
2. Lift the meat out of the marinade, rinse under cold running water, dry well and spread it slightly open on a surface. Pepper and salt the surface and distribute the chestnut and butter filling evenly. Roll up the meat lengthways, fix the roll with kitchen twine and season with pepper and salt on the outside. Heat the 50 g lard in a pan and sear the roll all around. When it has gotten all over the place, insert a roast thermometer up to the middle and place it on the wire rack in the oven. The core temperature should be 55 ° for a juicy, tender leg. This means a cooking time of around 45 – 50 minutes at 180 °. If you use the low cooking method, you would need around 2.5 – 3 hours at an oven temperature of 80 °.
3. While the meat is being cooked, continue processing the sauce. To do this, pour the entire contents of the pot through a sieve, drain well and collect the sauce in a pot. Determine the amount and – if it has not already been done the day before – simmer the sauce mixture over medium heat and open the pot to approx. 300 ml. Then stir in the cranberries, bring to the boil again briefly, thicken with the starch mixed in a little water and season to taste.
4. For the spaetzle, bring well-salted water to the boil in a large saucepan and at the same time melt 40 g butter in a pan at a medium temperature. Then whip the dough vigorously again and use a spaetzle press to slide it into the boiling water in portions. When the spaetzle swim to the surface, turn the temperature down a little, let them simmer for 1 – 2 minutes, then lift them out with a slotted spoon, drain well in a sieve and then immediately add to the pan with the butter. There, increase the heat and fry the spaetzle a little crispy in places.
5. When the meat has reached its core temperature, cut it into thick slices and serve it with spaetzle and sauce. We had red cabbage as a side dish, which is not included in the preparation because I had it in stock in the freezer.
6. The resting times of the spaetzle dough and the sauce are not taken into account, as they take place during the time of the meat marinating.
7. This dish is a bit elaborate from the marinier era, but not at all as far as the individual steps are concerned. Everything has to be prepared well, so the preparation afterwards is not stressful. In addition, all of this is forgotten while enjoying ……………; -))) ……. well then ‘nice … …….